[Untitled]
By Kate Asche
the sac
itself wasclear
and I cleaned itlike a window
and in the windowsaw my baby
our baby[birdlike
mouth opennasalarea still
oversizedlike a beak]eye’s aperture blue-black
head thrownbackand twisted beginning
to separateneck brok
en in the contractions’violencetwo arms
two legstailbone translucent... [whatcolor is
the baby?]silent heart [sac contains“chorionic cavity”]
with utmost tendernessI [verbed] itinto a clear plastic
containerheld a flashlightunder it
[I saw...it was like ...I felt...]
I photographed it[stored it in thefridge until...
looked at itfrom time
to time... I felt...by that Friday when
the mobile phlebotomistcame I transferred it
into the barcodedspecimen cup in the kit
it had broken furtherI knew as I swirled it in
phosphate buffered salineas directed my baby-our
baby—was falling apartfrondosum lifted, swayed
in the whirlingsolution obscurant
I handed thissingular life over
never saw my child
again
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Source:
Poetry
(May 2024)
